Chapter 6 Chapter 04

As I said before, he was widowed.He got married when he was young and in his prime, and he married for money.He was completely bankrupt in Moscow before his parents died, so after their death he had almost nothing. The village of Vasilievskoye was mortgaged, and mortgaged and mortgaged; he was in debt.At that time, the Duke, who was only twenty-two years old, had to find a job in a certain institution in Moscow to earn a living.At that time, he had no He was penniless, so that he entered into life quite like a pauper, like a "poor son of the ancient seed."In desperation, he married the beautiful old daughter of a tax-contractor, and the marriage finally saved him.Of course, the tax-consolidator in

He lied to him about the dowry issue, but after all, using the money from his wife's dowry can redeem the ancestral manor, gain a firm foothold, and revive the family business.The daughter of the merchant whom the duke married was only fluent in writing and ink, never had a few big characters, and she was ugly. She is ugly, but she has a great advantage: she is kind-hearted and obedient.The prince made the most of this advantage of her: after only a year of marriage he left her in the care of her father, a tax-contractor in Moscow.During this period, her wife gave him A son was born.He himself went away and took a post in such-and-such a province, where he secured a fairly good post through a prominent relation in Petersburg.Deep down in his selfish heart, he longs to be famous, to rise to the top, to make a fortune, and in his heart

Thinking about it, he had such a wife that he couldn't get along no matter in Petersburg or Moscow, so he made up his mind to start from the provinces, first make a personal appearance, and wait to make a fortune.He is said to have abused his wife during the first year he lived with her, Almost tortured her to death.Nikolai Sergeitch was filled with righteous indignation every time he heard the rumour, and he defended the prince vehemently, saying that he would never do such a dirty thing.But after six or seven years, the Duchess finally As a result of his death, her widowed husband immediately returned to Petersburg.He even caused a small sensation in Petersburg.He was young, handsome, rich, endowed with a bewildering array of qualities, and was beyond doubt a man of wit

, and elegant in conversation, always cheerful. When he came to Petersburg, he did not look like a person looking for connections and backers, but lived a very chic life.It is said that there is indeed a charm about him, and there is indeed something powerful that makes people overwhelmed. The women take a liking to him, and he hooks up with one of the great beauties of high society, which gets him into some scandals.Although he is very calculating by nature, almost stingy, but he spends a lot of money and is not stingy. At the poker table, he will lose to him Those who want to lose, even if the loss is huge, will not frown.However, he did not come to Petersburg to seek entertainment: his purpose here was to get through the door, to gain a firm foothold, and to consolidate his fame and fortune.this he achieved

.He has a prominent relative, Count Nainsky, who would have ignored him if the Duke had come this time as an ordinary supplicant, but now he is amazed that he can have both sides in the upper class, with such great success, Therefore, he thought it was advisable and appropriate to give the duke special care, and he even made an exception by adopting his seven-year-old son and taking him into his own house.The Duke's visit to Vasilyevskoye and his and the Ikhmenevs My acquaintance belongs to this period.Finally, through the mediation of the count, he finally obtained an important post in an important embassy of our country abroad, and went abroad.Since then, the news about him has become a bit ambiguous: some people say that he made a post abroad.

Something unpleasant happened, but no one could tell what happened.All I know is that he purchased another 400 serfs, which I have already mentioned.Many years later, when he returned from abroad, he was already a high official, and when he returned to Petersburg he Immediately ranked among the most important.In Ihmenevka, it was rumored that he was about to renew his marriage and planned to marry a prominent, wealthy and powerful family. "Soon to be a high official!" said Nikolay Sergeyitch, rubbing his hands triumphantly.i was in university in petersburg , I remember, Ikhmenev also specially wrote a letter to me, asking me to find out, is it true?He also wrote to the duke, asking him to take care of me; but the duke made no reply to his letter.I only know that his son, originally

He was first adopted by the count, and then he studied in a noble high school. At the age of ten and nine, he had already finished his studies. I wrote to the Ikhmenevs and said that the prince liked his son very much. Beloved, already thinking about him now The future is arranged.All this, I heard from my college classmates who met this son.Just then, one morning, Nikolai Sergeyitch received a letter from the prince, which surprised him so much... ① source Nekrasov's poem "The Duchess" (1856). I have already mentioned that the prince's relations with Nikolai Sergeych had hitherto been limited to purely business correspondence, but this letter deals with his own affairs in detail, frankly and with great friendliness. Family status: he holds

He blamed his son for his bad behavior, which made him sad; of course, he was still a child, and he couldn't take the mischief of such a child too seriously (he clearly had the right to defend his son), but he decided to take it seriously. He punished slightly , to scare him, and the specific method is: send him to the country to live for a period of time, under the supervision of Ikhmenev.The prince wrote that he had complete confidence in the "extremely good and noble Nikolai Sergeyitch, especially Anna Anne Andreyevna", ask them to take this slut of his with grace, let him live with them, keep him from his friends, teach him, and if possible, give him some love. and the main thing is to get rid of his line

For the vice of debauchery, "teach him some strict rules necessary for dealing with people, which are enough to turn the prodigal son back." Needless to say, the old man Ikhmenev happily complied.Here comes the young duke; they greet him as if they were their own sons waited for him.Nikolai Sergeyitch soon fell in love with the boy as passionately as his own daughter Natasha; even afterward the old prince broke up with Ikhmenev. Afterwards, the old man was still in a good mood sometimes He thought fondly of his good boy Alyosha--that was how he was accustomed to address Prince Alexey Petrovitch.Indeed, this is a very lovely child: good-looking, very beautiful, and vulnerable and impulsive like a woman.

At the same time, he is innocent, lively, honest, open to others, can show extremely noble feelings, has a heart of love for himself and others, honesty, and gratitude - he became the favorite of the Ikhmenev family. .Although he is nineteen years old, Is still totally like a child.It's hard to imagine, I heard that his father loves him very much, so why should he be dispatched to the countryside?It is said that the young man, living in Petersburg, lived a life of idleness, refused to do anything, and made him Father was distressed.Since Prince Pyotr Alexandrovitch was vague in his letter as to the real reason for his exile of his son, Nikolay Sergeyitch did not go out of his way to ask Alyosha.Still some flying

Gossip, saying that Alyosha's life is dissolute and unforgivable, that he hooked up with a lady, and found a duel, and that he lost a staggering sum of money at cards; even There are also people who talk nonsense, saying that he took other people's Money also seemed to be squandered.It was also rumored that the prince sent his son to the country not through any fault of his, but because of some special selfish motive.Nikolai Sergeyitch angrily refuted the gossip What's more, Alyosha loves his father very much, although he has never seen him since he was a child; Alyosha is always interested in talking about his father; it can be seen that he has been deeply influenced by his father.In chatting, Alyosha sometimes It tells of their father and son chasing a countess at the same time, and he got the upper hand, and the father was bitter about it and had a grudge against him.He told the story with great interest, talking like a child, and laughing loudly and gaily. without stopping; but Nikolai Sergeyitch stopped him at once, and would not let him continue.Alyosha also confirmed the rumors that his father wanted to continue. He had already passed almost a year in exile, writing respectful and sensible letters to his father at regular intervals, and at last he got used to living in Vasilyevskoe, so that when the prince himself When I come to the countryside to spend summer (event Notified the Ikhmenevs before), the exiled son begged his father to let him stay longer in Vasilievskoye, saying that country life was where he was really born.All of Alyosha's decisions and whim, From his neurasthenia and oversensitivity, from his fiery heart, from his indiscretions which sometimes reached the point of absurdity;But the duke listened to him Suspicions arose for some reason after the request... In short, Nikolai Sergeyitch almost did not recognize his former "friend": Pyotr Alexandrovitch had changed, almost If there are two people.To Nikolai Sergeyitch he suddenly Became very fastidious; displayed repulsive greed, pettiness, and inexplicable paranoia when auditing accounts.All this grieved the very good-natured Ikhmenev; for a long time he refused to believe his own feelings.This Compared with the prince's first visit to Vasilievskoe fourteen years ago, everything was reversed: this time the prince visited all the neighborhood, and of course only the famous people; He never came to the Ergeitch's, And the attitude towards him is the same as that towards his subordinates.At this moment, an unthinkable thing happened suddenly: the prince and Nikolai Sergeych immediately broke off completely, seemingly for no reason.Someone overheard the two parties getting angry They said some hurtful things.Ikhmenev left Vasilyevskoye angrily, but the matter was not over.A sickening rumor suddenly spread in this area.Some say that Nikolai Sergeyitch has figured it out The temper of the little prince, who would take advantage of all his faults for my own use; what about his daughter Natasha (she was seventeen years old at the time) so charming that this young man of twenty fell in love with her; What did you say that the two high halls secretly instigated This love affair, though apparently unaware of it, and the scheming and "sexy" Natasha, at last completely charmed the young man, although in the house of the most respected landowners in this area, waiting for word real aristocrat in boudoir The elder sister is like a crowd of beauty, but due to her ingenious arrangement, the young man hardly saw any of them in the whole year.Finally, it is also said that the husband and wife have agreed to a place fifteen versts from Vasilievskoye, The village of Grigoryevo, where they were planning to get married, seemed to have been hidden from Natasha's parents on the surface, but in fact the two high priests knew all about it, and even gave their daughter a divorce. Some bad ideas.In short, this county loves to gossip The men and women of China have fabricated a lot of gossip about this, and if they were all written down, a large book might not be able to finish it.But the most puzzling thing is that the prince believed this so completely that he even came to Vasilyevskoe this time. And it was precisely for this reason that he had received an anonymous letter from the province addressed to him in Petersburg.Of course, anyone who knew anything about Nikolai Sergeyitch would be at a loss for words to accuse him of being forced upon him. I will not believe a word; however, such situations are common, everyone is telling each other, everyone is talking nonsense, what everyone is saying is not humane, everyone is shaking their heads and sighing, and... there is no turning back blatantly accuse him. Ikhmenev's self-esteem was so strong that he didn't bother to defend his daughter in front of these gossiping people, and forbade his wife Anna Andreyevna to explain anything to her neighbors. .As for Natasha herself, despite all the slander , and even after a whole year, hardly knew anything about the gossip and slander: it was a matter of great painstaking effort, and was kept from her all the while, for she had always been jovial, innocent, like A twelve-year-old girl. Meanwhile, the quarrel intensified.People who are enthusiastic about gossip don't doze off.There were informers, there were witnesses, and finally the prince was convinced that Nikolai Sergeyitch had been running Vasilyevskoye for many years, Far from being an example of honesty and honesty.And besides: Nikolai Sergeyitch swallowed 12,000 silver rubles privately three years ago in the sale of a grove. He did not get any legal power of attorney from the duke, but made his own way, and only afterwards convinced the duke that he had to sell the woods, and the money he gave the duke for the sale of the woods was much less than what he actually got, There is simply no comparison.No need to All this, he said, was slander, and it turned out to be slander, but the prince believed it all, and called Nikolai Sergeitch a thief in front of many people.Ikhmenev couldn't take his breath away, so he used a well-matched annoyance words in return; and there ensued a terrible quarrel.A lawsuit followed.Nikolai Sergeyitch did not have certain supporting documents, mainly because he did not have a background, and because he did not have experience in this type of lawsuit, the lawsuit was about to come to an end. lost.His estate has been seized by the government.In a fit of rage, the old gentleman left everything behind and decided to move his family to Petersburg to defend his unjust case himself, leaving an experienced attorney in the province to handle it for him. affairs .The Duke seemed to understand very quickly that he should not insult Ikhmenev for no reason.But because both parties have already torn their faces, it is impossible to talk about reconciliation. In a rage, the Duke tried his best to win the lawsuit completely. No, in other words, in fact, it is to take away the last piece of bread from his past housekeeper and make him completely pauper.